The world’s top 10 spirit brands

6: Captain Morgan

Captain Morgan is Diageo’s leading rum and accounts for over two-thirds of net sales within the rum category, with rum in turn representing 6% of Diageo’s net sales.

Net sales of Captain Morgan were up 7% last year, tipping sales up to the 10 million mark for the first time – only the sixth international brand to do so – buoyed by the continued success of the “Life, Love and Loot” campaign, which, having run since 2011, has re-energised the brand in North America.

The Jamaican rum is named after 17th century Welsh privateer and governor of Jamaica, Sir Henry Morgan, who died in 1688 and features on every bottle made by the brand. The second largest spirits brand by volume in the US, unusually, Captain Morgan is led by its Spiced variant, with Diageo opting to launch Captain Morgan Spiced in new markets ahead of the original version.

Describing the recent spiced rum growth trend as “unstoppable”, Diageo intends to target Australia as the Captain’s next port of call, with Asia being left to super-premium rum brand Zacapa.